Written Answers Thursday 14 October 2010

Scottish Executive Enterprise

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it responded to the UK Government consultation, Financing a private sector recovery , and, if so, on what date it lodged its submission and what it contained.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government submitted its response to the UK Government’s consultation on Financing a private sector recovery on 17 September 2010.This response covered the breadth of subject matter covered by the consultation paper, including regulatory frameworks; equity and debt capital markets; competition; risk; the banking sector environment, and international trade. The response took account of the views of Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Development International and identified areas of concern for Scotland (such as the difficulties in accessing finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as evidenced by the Scottish Government’s own research into SME Access to Finance), as well as outlining topics of specific interest to Scotland, such as the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Loan Fund.

Renewable Energy

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what sites in the United Kingdom have been selected for wind turbine manufacture; whether any sites in Scotland have been selected, and, if not, what information it has on the reasons for this.

Jim Mather: The recently published Stage 2 National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP) report provides the main source of information on a range of key sites for offshore wind manufacturing in Scotland. The report identifies the opportunity to create clusters of economic activity throughout the supply chains around these locations and highlights the potential to support an offshore wind sector manufacturing 750 complete offshore wind units per year. Scotland’s economic development agencies are taking forward the next stage of N-RIP involving investment in facilities and attracting offshore wind manufacturers to establish operations in Scotland.

  The previous UK administration published, and subsequently updated, a UK offshore wind ports prospectus, which set out high-level site characteristics and contact details in relation to a large number of potential sites, including several in Scotland, designed to make it easier for offshore wind companies to make contact with port owners. However, as the prospectus made clear this was, and is, by no means an exclusive list.